Chair, I wonder if the Minister would mind very much if I broadened the question a little. I understand that this is a sensitive issue and people have to make very difficult decisions. I think we all understand as a starting point that there are limits in what the state can spend on medical treatment. The question I would like to put to the Minister is whether there are specified limits to the amount of money to be spent on a particular procedure for a given patient. I presume that there are certain procedures that are simply too expensive to be considered. Certainly, that is the case in private medical aids, and they have been challenged in court. However, I don't know whether that is the case in the state system.
Secondly, I would like to know whether criteria other than success, which the Minister mentioned, are used, because presumably factors like age and life expectancy would have a bearing as well.
Thirdly, I would like to know whether the procedure that is used to make these decisions - as the Minister explained to us - is applied uniformly throughout the country. In other words, if one is a patient in hospital A in province B, and is in dire need of some assistance, would he or she perhaps get a different answer if he or she was in another province?